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will establish a branch in early July on the grounde floor of an office towert inside the 610 Loop nearPost Oak. Spacee City was chartered in 1965 to servd employees of oil and gas industry equipmentfmanufacturer LLC. The credit union shiftex around several downtown locations with the companhy before moving to its current headquartersa on Harrisburg Boulevardin 1999. Craig Rohden, Space City president and CEO, says the credirt union had been looking to open another officw forseveral years, but waited to find the right Rohden notes that Space City already serves Houston-areaw employees of General Electrixc Co.
, and the new branch at 1233 West Loop Soutuh is also home to , makinfg the move a logical fit. The credit union also has a small two-person office inside a GE Energy plantr on the Houston Ship Channel that servess morethan 1,000 employees on site. GE in fact, was once owned by Stewarrt & Stevenson. Space City received regulatory approval for a charterin 2004, allowingv the credit union to serve any custome r within 10 miles of its In addition, the credit union is tied in to a networkj of about 70 other rival credit unioh branches in the region so customerws can access accounts at any The community charter will apply to the new which was another factor in choosintg the West Loop location.
Rohdeb notes about 1,200 people are employed in thetwo mirror-imaged officer towers owned by Dallas-base The new branch will includew two drive-through lanes and an ATM, with an ATM to be installes in the adjacent tower at 1333 West Loop Rohden says. “We’ll be marketing to tenants in both buildingd and the general public around the Galleria area within the perimete ofthe branch,” he “Our community charter pretty much coverzs everything inside Beltway 8 to downtown.” A spate of start-u p banks and other regional players have openedr for business in Houston this year looking to grab smal business customers away from the bigger banks.
Still, Rohdehn says Space City’s decision to expand had nothing to do with the shiftingv tide within the overall financialservices industries, considering the credit unionh markets to consumers, not business customers. Unlike credit unions are owned by theircustomer — rather than outside shareholders — and in essencse operate as not-for-profit entities. Any profits are foldedf back intoequity capital. Dan Bass, managin director with investment bankers, agrees that credit unions like SpaceCity won’t have much impact on smalll community banks, but are targeting retaip customers that might be willing to switchn from big national banks.
“Like the bigger banks, credit unions are tryinb to get retail traffic throughthe door, and are focusinyg on finding the right location. They have low costs so it makesw a lot of senser for them todo that,” Bass says. Spacd City, which has 18 employees, now representz 5,326 members in 25 states after wideninf its reach inthe 1980s. The credit uniom has more than 70 customer companies in the with about 75 percentg of its membership in the Houston The credit union had two employeees and assets ofabout $4 million when Rohdenb came on board in 1994. Filingsx with the , which overseex the industry, show how Space City currently stacks up in thefinancial sector.
• The credity union had outstanding loansof $19 millionj and deposits of just under $23 milliob in the first quarter, with net income of $18,753e after posting a loss of $335,376 in the fourtn quarter of 2008.
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